A Thief in the Night

This morning I went out to feed the chickens at around 6:30 am. It was still pitch black out, and there was almost no moon to see by. As I approached the coop, I heard the sound of claws on chicken wire. Through the dark, I could barely make out the silhouette of a small animal. My initial reaction was that we'd inadvertently left a chicken out over night, and it had decided to roost on the fence for the night. I was about to grab it and toss it back inside, but something stopped me. I fed the chickens that were inside the coop, and ran back to the house to get a flashlight. Not finding one, I asked Katey to get the camera, and I went out and zoomed in on the silhouette. When I snapped the shot, this is what we saw:

We've heard that possums are pretty harmless, at least compared to the other types of nocturnal critters that we could have. They're less likely to have rabies than raccoons; they're less ferocious than coyotes; they smell better than skunks. This one was obviously interested in the chickens, but as long as the door is closed, the possum shouldn't be an issue.
We hope...